Cda Judge Orders Hearing On Paradis Execution Death Row Inmate Also Will Get Chance To Plead His Case Before Parole Board

First District Judge Gary Haman will call condemned murderer Donald Manuel Paradis back into his North Idaho courtroom before signing a new warrant for Paradis’ execution.

Paradis, 47, was convicted and ordered to die for the June 1980 slaying of 19-year-old Kimberly Ann Palmer of Spokane. He has denied any role in Palmer’s strangulation, and other witnesses who did not testify at his trial said another man killed Palmer in Spokane - not Idaho.

Fellow Death Row inmate Thomas Henry Gibson has confessed to Palmer’s murder and said Paradis was not involved.

Haman said he has no doubt about Paradis’ guilt. But the judge said Idaho law requires one last hearing to clear the decks for an execution.

“The way I read the law, I’m going to have to have an inquiry with Don present,” he said.

Haman said Thursday that he doubts the hearing could be scheduled before Paradis appears before the state Commission on Pardons and Parole on May 15.

The five-member board last week granted the former motorcycle gang member’s petition for a commutation hearing where he will be able to present his case that new evidence proves he did not kill Palmer.

The hearing will be held at the Maximum Security Institution south of Boise and will provide several hours for both Paradis and the attorney general’s office to present their cases. But even if he can convince the parole board, Gov. Phil Batt must formally approve clemency in 30 days or it is automatically denied.

“Any action by Judge Haman, which at this point will inject a measure of reality into the state’s efforts to create a crisis climate by the issuance of a death warrant before this case is duly considered for clemency, is refreshing and appreciated,” defense attorney William Mauk said. “That’s the way it should be done.”

Paradis’ last state appeal was denied in late February by the Idaho Supreme Court. Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas applied to Haman for a death warrant on Wednesday after Haman rejected as invalid a request from the state attorney general’s office that a new execution date be set. Haman said state law authorizes only the prosecuting attorney to request the issuance of a death warrant.

Paradis also has a last appeal pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco after it was denied April 1 by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge in Boise.

But most of the new evidence Paradis has been relying on in his commutation bid has already been available to federal appellate courts and gone unconsidered on what the defense calls legal technicalities.

That makes commutation the last real chance Paradis has to avoid becoming the 13th man executed by Idaho since statehood.